This 1994 Academy Award Winner tells the unprecedented story of mentally challenged Forrest Gump (Tom Hanks) as he navigates the rocky terrain of life. Framed as him telling his life story to strangers at a bus stop, he tells them the story of his time in Vietnam, his tenure as an All-American football player at the University of Alabama, his encounter with Elvis Presley and his difficult relationship with the love of his life, Jenny (Robin Wright).
Forrest Gump is a literary nerd’s dream as it uses New Historicism to tell Gump’s story. New Historicism is a “...literary theory whose goal is to understand intellectual history through literature.” This means that fiction is sprinkled throughout a true story with the purpose of helping audiences better understand a reality. Writers Winston Groom and Eric Roth, along with director Robert Zemeckis, used uberly popular historic events and locations to draw in audiences and create a connection between their realities and what Forrest was experiencing throughout his life. The way in which the film was scripted was genius and made it easy for audiences to make connections to the characters and the events.
Tom Hanks is well known for his extraordinary ability to portray characters with great vim and vigor and depict greatness every time he picks up a script. He knows how to become the characters he chooses, and he, better than most actors in Hollywood, is able to convince audiences that those characters are real. He, like every time before, did not just pretend to be Forrest Gump, he physically became Forrest Gump and delivered the performance of a lifetime. It cannot be overstated how wonderfully dramatic and beautiful his performance was and how much he deserved each and every award he received for this role (including his Oscar for Best Actor in a Leading Role). Hanks was surrounded by a wonderful cast that, like him, perfectly portrayed their respective characters. Wright became the character that filmgoers know around the world by one name, Jenny. She wonderfully played the love of Forrest’s life and one of the least likeable characters in cinematic history. The fact that Wright was able to portray such a disgustingly douchey character speaks to her acting ability. The final piece of the triad was Lieutenant Dan Taylor (Gary Sinese). His character was the most dynamic and grew the most over the course of the film. Lt. Dan grew from the grouchy, soul-sucking Lieutenant who put Gump through the wringer to the man who worked along-side and truly appreciated Gump for what he was, a hard-working simpleton. His ability to feed off of Hanks' talent made them the perfect pair and the perfect casting choices.
There were so many positives, and yet, the one negative suffocated the story and the film. Stupid humor is something that many films use to drive the story and draw in audiences. Groom, Roth and Zemeckis appeared to make a conscious decision to use stupid humor as a device to lure audiences and keep them engaged. With the incredible acting ability of the three leads, the film had the potential to thrive off of this delivery. However, paired with new historicism, the attempted humor fell flat and created a paradox of reality and fantasy. In order for stupid comedy to work, there has to be an understanding by both sides (filmmaker and viewer) that this is what it is and nothing more. However, the delivery depicted alleged legitimacy, and therefore dulled the humor and crushed the actors ability to accurately deliver their comedy. Zemeckis, the writers and the cast had so much to be proud of, and, yet, their attempt to present the film as somewhat non-fictional destroyed their noble attempt at comedy. While the appeal to the masses does make sense, coupling idiotic humor and new historicism together made for a poor delivery and a sub-par final product.
Thank you very much. I'm trying my best to be objective toward films that I don't much care for!
Beautiful review!